'Household Stories from the Land of Hofer; or, Popular Myths of Tirol,'
I hardly remember to have met any concerning its prominent heights.
[3] I published much of the matter of the following pages in the
first instance in the Monthly Packet, and I have to thank the Editor
for my present use of them.
[4] See Steub 'Über die Urbewohner Rätiens und ihren Zusammenhang mit
den Etruskern. Münich, 1843,' quoted in Dennis' Cities and Cemeteries
of Etruria, I. Preface, p. xlv.
[5] See it in use below, p. 28, and comp. Etruscan Res. p. 302, note.
[6] Somewhat like pleurer. A good many words are like French, as
gutschle, a settle (couche); schesa, a gig; and gespusa, mentioned
above, is like épouse; and au, for water, is common over N. Tirol,
as well as Vorarlberg, e.g. infra, pp. 24, 111. &c.
[7] Comp. Etrus. Res. 339-41.
[8] Several places have received their name from having grown round
such a hut; some of these occur outside Vorarlberg, as for instance
Kühthei near St. Sigismund (infra, p. 331) in the Lisenthal, and
Niederthei in the OEtzthal.
[9] Comp. ma = earth, land, Etrus. Res. pp. 121, 285.
[10] Comp. subulo, Etrus. Res. 324. Dennis i. 339.
[11] Infra, p. 411.
[12] See e.g., infra, p. 202.
[13] Etrus. Res. p. 330.
[14] P. 79.
[15] Professor Max Müller, Chips from a German Workshop.
[16] Rev. G. W. Cox, Prof. De Gubernatis, Dr. Dasent, &c.
[17] In the Contemporary Review for March 1874.
[18] Mr. Cox had pointed it out before him, however, and more fully,
Mythology of the Aryan Nations, ii. 200.
[19] L'una vegghiava a studio della culla,
E consolando usava l'idioma,
Che pria li padri e le madri trastulla:
L'altra traendo alla rocca la chioma
Favoleggiava con la sua famiglia
De' Troiani, e di Fiesole, e di Roma.
Dante. Paradiso, xv. 120 5.
[20] Tullio Dandolo.
[21] Depping, Romancero, Preface.
[22] The usual fate of relying on Road-books. Ours, I forget whether
Amthor's or Trautwein's, said there was regular communication between
Oberriet and Feldkirch, and nothing could be further from the fact,
as will be seen a few pages later.
[23] If Pfäffers is visited by rail (see p. 23), it is convenient to
take it before Feldkirch.
[24] See further quaint details and historical particulars in Vonbun,
Sagen Vorarlbergs, p. 103-5.
[25] Vonbun, pp. 113-4.
[26] Historical particulars in Vonbun, pp. 110-1.
[27] Vonbun, pp. 86-7.
[28] It may also be reached by railway as it is but three or four
miles from Ragatz, two stations beyond Buchs (p. 13).
[29] It has been suggested by an eminent comparative mythologist that
it is natural Luc-ius should be said to have brought 'the Light of
the Gospel' to men of Licht-enstein.
[30] The traitor was loaded with heavy armour and thrown over the Ill
precipice. See Vonbun's parallel with the tradition of the Tarpeian
rock, p. 99 n. 2.
[31] Notably at Raggal, Sonntag, Damüls, Luterns, and also in
Lichtenstein.--Vonbun, pp. 107-8.
[32] Infra, Chapter viii., p. 238.
[33] Vonbun, pp. 92-3.
[34] Some analogous cases quoted in Sagas from the Far East, pp. 365,
383-5.
[35] Father! take me also with you.
[36] Vonbun, pp. 115-7.
[37] The story of its curious success against the Bavarians in 1703,
p. 287-8. From Landeck there is a fine road (the description of
which belongs to Snitt-Tirol), over the Finstermünz and Stelvio,
to the baths of Bormio or Worms.
[38] The chief encounter occurred at a place called Le Tezze, near
Primolano, on the Venetian border, where the Tiroleans repulsed the
Italians, in numbers tenfold greater than their own, and no further
attempt was made. The anniversary is regularly observed by visiting
the graves on August 14; mentioned below at Le Tezze.
[39] Following are the names of the fourteen, but I have never met
any one who could explain the selection. 1. S. Acatius, bishop in
Asia Minor, saved from death in the persecutions under Decius, 250,
by a miracle he performed in the judgment hall where he was tried,
and in memory of which he carries a tree, or a branch of one, in
pictures of him. 2. S. Ægidius (Giles, in German, Gilgen), Hermit,
of Nimes, nourished in his cell by the milk of a hind, which, being
hunted, led to the discovery of his sanctity, an episode constantly
recurring in the legendary world. Another poetical legend concerning
him is that a monk, having come to him to express a doubt as to the
virginity of Our Lady, S. Giles, for all answer traced her name in
the sand with his staff, and forthwith full-bloom lilies sprang up
out of it. 3. S. Barbara. A maiden whom her heathen father shut up
in a tower, that nothing might distract her attention from the life
of study to which he devoted her; among the learned men who came
to enjoy her elevated conversation came a Christian teacher, and
converted her; in token of her belief in the doctrine of the Trinity
she had three windows made in her tower, and by the token her father
discovered her conversion, delivered her to judgment, and she suffered
an incredible repetition of martyrdoms. She is generally painted with
her three-windowed tower in her hand. 4. S. Blase, Bishop of Sebaste
and Martyr, A.D. 288. He had studied medicine, and when concealed in
the woods during time of persecution, the wild beasts used to bring
the wounded of their number to his feet to be healed. Men hunting
for Christians to drag to justice, found him surrounded by lions,
tigers, and bears; even in prison he continued to exercise his healing
powers, and from restoring to life a boy who had been suffocated by
swallowing a fishbone, he is invoked as patron against sore throat. He
too suffered numerous martyrdoms. 5. S. Christopher. 6. S. Cyriacus,
Martyr, 309, concerning whom many legends are told of his having
delivered two princesses from incurable maladies. 7. S. Dionysius,
the Areopagite, converted by S. Paul, and consecrated by him Bishop
of Athens, afterwards called to Rome by S. Peter, and made Bishop of
Paris. 8. S. Erasmus, a bishop in Syria, after enduring many tortures
there, he was thrown into prison, and delivered by an angel, who
sent him to preach Christianity in Italy, he died at Gaeta 303. At
Naples and other places he is honoured as S. Elmo. 9. S. Eustachius,
originally called Placidus, a Roman officer, converted while hunting
by meeting a stag which carried a refulgent cross between its horns;
his subsequent reverses, his loss of wife and children, the wonderful
meeting with them again, and the agency of animals throughout, make his
one of the most romantic of legends. 10. S. George. 11. S. Catherine
of Alexandria. 12. S. Margaret. 13. S. Pantaleone, another student
of medicine; when, after many tortures, he was finally beheaded, the
legend tells us that, in token of the purity of his life, milk flowed
from his veins instead of blood, A.D. 380. 14. S. Vitus, a Sicilian,
instructed by a slave, who was his nurse, in the Christian faith
in his early years; his father's endeavours to root out his belief
were unavailing, and he suffered A.D. 303, at not more than twelve
years of age. The only link I can discover in this chain of saints is
that they are all but one or two, whose alleged end I do not know, as
S. Christopher, credited with having suffered a plurality of terrible
martyrdoms. To each is of course ascribed the patronage over some
special one of the various phases of human suffering.
[40] P. 12.
[41] Among these not the least remarkable were some specimens of the
unbrimmed beaver hat, somewhat resembling the Grenadier's bear-skin,
only shorter, which is worn by the women in various parts of Tirol
and Styria.
[42] The bell called in other countries the Elevation bell, is in
Germany called the Wandlung, or change-of-the-elements bell. The
idiom was worth preserving here, as it depicts more perfectly the
solemnity of the moment indicated.
[43] The threefold invocation, supposed to be supremely efficacious.
[44] In Tirol the roofs are frequently made of narrow overlapping
planks, weighed down by large stones. Hence the origin of the German
proverb, 'If a stone fall from the roof, ten to one but it lights on
a poor widow;'--equivalent to our 'Trouble never comes alone.'
[45] 'May God reward it.'
[46] The frontispiece to this volume (very much improved by the artist
who has drawn it on the wood).
[47] Of the Brixenthal and the Gebiet der grossen Ache we shall have
to speak in a later chapter, in our excursion 'from Wörgl to Vienna.'
[48] The comparative mythologist can perhaps tell us why this story
crops up everywhere. I have had occasion to report it from Spain in
Patrañas. Curious instances in Stöber Sagen des Elsasses.
[49] S. Leonard is reckoned the patron of herds. See Pilger durch
Tirol, p. 247.
[50] Anna Maria Taigi, lately beatified in Rome, was also a
maid-servant.
[51] I have throughout the story reconciled, as well as I could,
the various versions of every episode in which local tradition
indulges. One favourite account of Ottilia's end, however, is so
different from the one I have selected above, that I cannot forbear
giving it also. It represents Ottilia rushing in despair from her
bed and wallowing in the enclosure of the pigs, whence, with all
Henry's care, she could not be withdrawn alive. All the strength of
his retainers was powerless to restrain the beasts' fury, and she
was devoured, without leaving a trace behind; only that now and then,
on stormy nights, when the pigs are grunting over their evening meal,
some memory of their strange repast seems to possess them, and the
wail of Ottilia is heard resounding hopelessly through the valley.
[52] Grimm has collected (Deutsche Sagen, Nos. 349 and 350) other
versions of the tradition of oxen deciding the sites of shrines which,
like the story of the steeple, meets us everywhere. A similar one
concerning a camel is given in Stöber's Legends of Alsace.
[53] It is perhaps to be reckoned among the tokens of Etruscan
residence among the Rhætian Alps, for Mr. Isaac Taylor finds that the
word belongs to their language. (Etruscan Researches, pp. 333, 380.)
[54] 'Hulda was supposed to delight in the neighbourhood of lakes
and streams; her glittering mansion was under the blue waters, and
at the hour of mid-day she might be seen in the form of a beautiful
woman bathing and then disappearing.'--Wolf, Deutsche Götterlehre. See
also Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, pp. 164-8.
[55] One version of the legend says, the Frozen Wall was formed out
of the quantities of butter the people had wasted.
[56] This excursion was made on occasion of a different journey
from that mentioned in Chapter i. Of course, if taken on the way
from Kufstein to Innsbruck, you would take the Wildschönau before
the Zillerthal.
[57] Whoever comes into the Zillerthal is sure to visit it a second
time.
[58] In the Vintschgau (see infra) the leading cow has the title
of Proglerin, from the dialectic word proglen, to carry one's head
high. She wears also the most resounding bell.
[59] 'Kaspar my name: from the East I came: I came thence with
great speed: five thousand miles in fourteen days: Melchior, step
in.' Zingerle gives a version of the whole set of rimes.
[60] See Sitten Bräuche u. Meinungen des Tiroler Volks, p. 81.
[61] Its origin may be traced further back than this, perhaps. The cat
was held to be the sacred animal of Freia (Schrader, Germ. Myth.), and
the word freien, to woo, to court, is derived from her name. (Nork.)
[62] The merry mocking laugh was a distinguishing characteristic
of Robin Goodfellow. 'Mr. Launcelot Mirehouse, Rector of Pestwood,
Wilts, did aver to me, super verbum sacerdotis, that he did once heare
such a lowd laugh on the other side of a hedge, and was sure that
no human lungs could afford such a laugh.'--John Aubrey, in Thoms'
Anecdotes and Traditions, Camb. Camden Society, 1839.
[63] O woe! the plough like fire glows,
And no one how to help me knows.
[64] Released am I now, God be praised,
And the bound-stone again rightly placed.
[65] The haunting cobbler--a popular name for 'the wandering Jew';
in Switzerland they call him 'Der Umgehende Jud.'
[66] (The souls of all unbaptized children.) Börner, Volkssagen,
p. 133.
[67] A precisely similar superstition is mentioned in Mrs. Whitcomb's
recently published volume as existing in Devonshire. We shall meet
Berchtl again in the neighbouring 'Gebiet der Grossen Ache' on our
excursion from 'Wörgl to Vienna.'
[68] Procula is the name given her in the Apocryphal Gospels.
[69] 'It is now known that such tales are not the invention of
individual writers, but that they are the last remnants--the detritus,
if we may say so--of an ancient mythology; that some of the principal
heroes bear the nicknames of old heathen gods; and that in spite of
the powerful dilution produced by the admixture of Christian ideas,
the old leaven of heathendom can still be discovered in many stories
now innocently told by German nurses, of saints, apostles, and the
Virgin Mary.'--Max Müller, Chips from a German Workshop.
[70] Compare Cox's Mythology of the Aryan Nations, vol. ii. p. 364,
and passim.
[71] Max Müller. Review of Dasent's Works.
[72] Max Müller. Comparative Mythology.
[73] A tradition still held of the Berchtl in many parts of Tirol.
[74] Nork. Mythologie der Volkssagen.
[75] Abbé Banier. Mythology Explained from History. Vol. ii. Book 3,
p. 564, note a.
[76] Nork, Banier, &c. Cox's Mythology of the Aryan Nations,
vol. i. pp. 317-8 and note, gives other connexions of the Legend;
and at vol. ii. p. 306, and note to p. 365.
[77] M. Müller. Review of Kelley's Indo-European Traditions.
[78] Weber says the only accusation was grounded on a pasquinade
against Claudia found among his papers, but that he should calumniate
her seems inconsistent with his general character. Though his unsparing
lampoons on his adversaries had excited them more than anything else
against him.
[79] Compare Gebhart, vol. ii. p. 240.
[80] Near Innsbruck.
[81] Staffler, Das Deutsche Tirol, vol. i. p. 751; and Thaler,
Geschichte Tirols v. der Urzeit, p. 279.
[82] Ball's Central Alps.
[83] Pasture-ground lying at the base of a mountain.
[84] Alpine herdsman.
[85] Respecting the curious idea of the kalte Pein, consult
Alpenburg, Mythen Tirols; Vernalken, Alpensagen; Beckstein,
Thuringer Sagenbuch. See also Dr. Dasent's remarks about Hel in
Popular Tales from the Norse; and Dante (notably Inferno, cantos
vi. xxii. xxiv.) introduces cold among the pains of even the Christian
idea of future punishment.
[86] Here we have quite the Etruscan idea of providing against
after-death needs with appliances connected with the mortal
state. Dennis (Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, vol. i. p. 34)
mentions more material traces of Etruscan beliefs at Matrei, on the
north side of the Brenner. Somewhat further south more important
remains still have of late years been unearthed, as we shall have
occasion to note by-and-by.
The story in the text, in its depiction of self-devotion, has much
analogy with a Chinese legend told to me by Dr. Samuel Birch, of the
British Museum, concerning a man who sacrifices his own life in order
to put himself on fighting terms with a cruel spirit which torments
that of his dead companion. In its details it is like the story I have
pointed out in Folklore of Rome (the 'Tale of the Pilgrim Husband,'
pp. 361-3 and xvii), as the most devious from Christian teaching of
any of the legends I have met with in Rome; and it is particularly
noteworthy in connexion with Mr. Isaac Taylor's summary of the
Etruscan creed (Etruscan Researches, p. 270). 'The Turanian creed was
Animistic. The gods needed no gifts, but the wants of the ancestral
spirits had to be supplied: the spirits of the departed were served
in the ghost-world by the spirits of the utensils and ornaments which
they had used in life.') And in effect we find in every collection
of the contents preserved at the opening of Etruscan tombs, not only
gems and jewellery and household utensils, but remains also of every
kind of food.
[87] There is something like this in Dean Milman's Annals of St. Paul's
Cathedral:--'"Others," adds Bishop Braybroke, "by the instigation of
the devil, do not scruple to play at ball, and other unseemly games,
within the church (he is speaking of St. Paul's), breaking the costly
painted windows, to the amazement of the spectators."' Speaking of the
post-Reformation period, the Dean adds: 'If, when the cathedral was
more or less occupied by sacred subjects, the invasion of the sanctuary
by worldly sinners resisted all attempts at suppression; now, that the
daily service had shrunk into mere forms of prayer, at best into a mere
'Cathedral Service,' ... it cannot be wondered at that the reverence,
which all the splendour of the old ritual could not maintain, died
away altogether as Puritanism rose in the ascendant.' Mr. Longman,
however (The Three Cathedrals, p. 54-6), quotes the very stringent
regulations which were issued for the repression of such practices:
perhaps the legend constructor would say, these afford the reason why,
though St. Paul's was profaned like the church of Achensee, it did not
'likewise perish.'
[88] Nork (Mythologie der Volksagen, vol. ix. p. 83) gives other
significations to horse-shoes found in the walls of old churches,
but does not mention this instance. Concerning the origin of the
superstition about vampires, see Cox's Mythology of the Aryan Nations,
vol. i. p. 363; also p. 63 and p. 429.
[89] Gebhart.
[90] 'Probably early in the ninth century.'--Scherer.
[91] Burglechner. Pilger durch Tirol. Panzer. Mülhenhof.
[92] Lit. a 'cattle-breeding-farm.'
[93] It follows that (when mountain scenery is not the special object
with the tourist) it is better to visit Viecht when staying at Schwatz
(Chapters vi. and vii.) than from Jenbach, at least it is a much less
toilsome ascent on this side from Viecht to S. Georgenberg, the most
interesting point of the pilgrimage. At S. Georgenberg there is a
good mountain inn.
[94] In his reign, 1440-90, it was that the silver-mines of Tirol
were discovered; and the abundant influx, to the extent of 500
cwt. annually, of the precious metal into his treasury, led him to
treat its stores as exhaustless; though the richest monarch of his
time, his easy open-handed disposition continually led him into debt,
and made his subjects finally induce him in his old age to resign in
favour of his cousin, the Emperor Maximilian I. It is a token of the
simplicity of the times, that one of the gravest reproaches against
him was that he indulged in the luxury of silk stockings! He married
Eleanor, daughter of James II. of Scotland.
[95] See infra in the Stubayerthal.
[96] In battle impetuous, yet merciful; in time of peace tranquil,
and faithful to his country's laws; whether as a warrior, a subject,
or an individual, worthy of honour as of love.
[97] Steward of the salt-mines.
[98] Johanniswürmchen, fire-flies.
[99] Peasants' war.
[100] Burglechner.
[101] Colin de Plancy, Légendes des sept pechés capitaux, Appendice;
and Nork, Mythologie der Volkssagen, point out that the dragon,
sacred to Wodin, was placed on houses, town gates, and belfries,
as a talisman against evil influences. See also some remarks on the
two-fold character of dragons in mythology in Cox's Mythology of the
Aryan Nations, i. 428.
[102] Compare Leoprechting, Aus dem Lechrain, page 78. Müllenhof
Sagen der Herzogthümer Schleswig Holstein u. Lauenburg, page 237.
[103] Mother of mercy.
[104] A touching story has been made out of his history in Alpen
Blumen Tirols.
[105] This was designed so as to coincide with the time when the
faithful throughout the world were saying the De Profundis.
[106] A similar fact for the comparative mythologist is recorded
p. 123-4, in the case of the Bienerweible. While these sheets were
preparing for the press, a singular one nearer home was brought
under my notice. A little girl being asked at a national school
examination, 'What David was before he was made king?' answered,
'Jack the Giant-killer.' This is a noteworthy instance of the hold
of myths on the popular mind; it did not proceed from defective
instruction, for the school is one of the very first in its reports,
and the child not at all backward.
[107] Concerning der feurige Mann, and the mark of his burning hand,
see Stöber Sagen des Elsasses, p. 222-3.
[108] At page 145.
[109] 'Feigen-Kaffee,' made of figs roasted and ground to powder,
is sold throughout Austria.
[110] Aubrey de Vere's Greece and Turkey.
[111] Burglechner. A.D. 1409.
[112] Mineral wealth--lit. Mountain-blessing.
[113] I was told there that it had been reckoned that 500,000 cigars
are smoked per diem in Tirol.
[114] The date of death on the tombstone of Lukas Hirtzfogel, whom
tradition calls the architect of this church, is 1475.
[115] Brush for sprinkling holy-water.
[116] See note to p. 140.
[117] See p. 95.
[118] See note to p. 48.
[119] 'The most precious good,' or 'possession;' a Tirolean expression
for the Blessed Sacrament.
[120] George of Freundsberg; a man of great strength; a worthy hero;
master of the field in combat and war; in every battle the enemy fell
before him. The honour and power he ascribed to God.
[121] Maundy Thursday.
[122] Stöber Sagen des Elsasses records a legend of a similar judgment
befalling a man who, in fury at a long drought, shot off three arrows
against heaven.
[123] Leichtsinnig.
[124] God prosper and bless you!
[125] Supra, pp. 80-2.
[126] Rout of the Bavarians.
[127] See pp. 151-2.
[128] Grimm (Deutsche Sagen, No. 492) gives an interesting legend
of the Hasslacherbrunnlein (half way between Kolsass and Wattens)
and of the resistance offered by the inhabitants of Tirol to the
Roman invasion of their country.
[129] The suppression of this and several other convents, in 1783, was
a measure sufficiently unpopular to almost neutralize the popularity
Joseph II. enjoyed as son of Maria Theresa. The suppression was not,
however, accompanied by spoliation; the funds were devoted to provide
a moderate stipend to a number of women of reduced circumstances
belonging to noble families.
[130] Stone of Obedience.
[131] I have met with another sprout of this banyan at the Monastery
of the Sacro Speco in the Papal State, where a huge fragment of rock,
so nicely balanced that it looks as if a breath might send it over
the cliff, is pointed out as having stood still for centuries at the
word of S. Benedict, who bid it 'non dannegiare i sudditi miei.'
[132] Wolf, Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie,
vol. ii. pp. 17-21. Müller, Niedersächsische Sagen, p. 51. Müllenhoff,
Sagen der Herzogthümer Schleswig-Holstein u. Lanenburg, p. 184.
[133] So strong is the prejudice in Tirol against Jews, that it is
said to be most difficult to find any one who will consent to act
the part of Judas in the Passion plays.
There is a very strong personal dislike to Judas throughout Tirol,
and I have also heard that the custom of burning him in effigy
occurs in various places. Karl Blind, in the article quoted above,
(p. 3,) accounts for this custom in the following way: 'After the
appearance of fermenting matter it was said' (in what he calls the
germanic mythology) 'that there rose in course of time--even as in
Greek mythology--first a half-human, half-divine race of giants, and
then a race of Gods; the Gods had to wage war against the giants and
finally vanquished them. Evidently the giants represent a torpid barren
state of things in nature, whilst the Gods signify the sap and fulness
of life which struggles into distinct and beautiful form. There was a
custom among the Germanic tribes of celebrating this victory over the
uncouth Titans by a festival, when a gigantic doll was carried round in
Guy Fawkes manner and at last burnt. To this day there are traces of
the heathen practice. In some parts of Europe, so-called Judas-fires,
which have their origin in the burning of the doll which represented
the giants or jötun. In some places, owing to another perversion of
things and words, people run about on that fête-day shouting 'burn
the old Jew!' The jötun was in fact, when Christianity came in, first
converted into Judas and then into a Jew, a transition to which the
similarity of the sound of the words easily lent itself.' No doubt
jötun sounds very like Juden but not all coincidences are consequences,
and it is quite possible that the old heathen custom had quite died
out before that of burning Judas in effigy began, as it certainly had
before Guy Fawkes began to be so treated. The same treatment of Judas'
memory occurs, too, in Spain on the day before Good Friday.
[134] S. Simeon of Trent is commemorated in the Roman Breviary (on
the 25th March). S. Andreas of Rinn has not received this honour.
[135] Keller, in his Volkslieder, p. 242, gives an analogous legend
of a poor idiot boy, who lived alone in the forest and was never heard
to say any words but 'Ave Maria.' After his death a lily sprang up on
his grave, on whose petals 'Ave Maria' might be distinctly read. It
is a not unusual form of legend; Bagatta, Admiranda orbis Christiani,
gives fifteen such.
[136] The ballad concerning the analogous English Legend of Hugh of
Lincoln seems to demand to be remembered here:--
HUGH OF LINCOLN
(SHOWING THE CRUELTY OF A JEW'S DAUGHTER).
A' the boys of merry Lincoln,
Were playing at the ba',
And up it stands him, sweet Sir Hugh,
The flower among them a'.
He kicked the ba' there wi' his feet,
And keppit it wi' his knee,
Till even in at the Jew's window,
He gart the bonny ba' flee.
'Cast out the ba' to me, fair maid,
Cast out the ba' to me;'
'Never a bit,' says the Jew's daughter,
'Till ye come up to me.'
'Come up, sweet Hugh! come up, dear Hugh!
Come up and get the ba';'
'I winna come, I minna come,
Without my bonny boys a'.'
She's ta'en her to the Jew's garden,
Where the grass grew long and green;
She's pu'd an apple red and white,
To wyle the bonny boy in.
When bells were rung and mass was sung,
And every bairn went home;
Then ilka lady had her young son,
But Lady Helen had none.
She row'd her mantle her about,
And sair, sair, 'gan to weep:
And she ran into the Jew's house
When they were all asleep.
'The lead is wondrous heavy, mither,
The well is wondrous deep;
A keen penknife sticks in my heart,
'Tis hard for me to speak.'
'Gae hame, gae hame, my mither dear,
Fetch me my winding-sheet;
And at the back of merry Lincoln,
'Tis there we twa shall meet.'
Now Lady Helen she's gane hame,
Made him a winding-sheet;
And at the back o' merry Lincoln,
The dead corpse did her meet.
And a' the bells o' merry Lincoln
Without men's hands were rung;
And a' the books o' merry Lincoln,
Were read without men's tongue;
Never was such a burial
Since Adam's days begun.
[137] There is a carriage-road reaching nearly to the top of the
Lanserkopf.
[138] The best shops are in the Franziskanergruben.
[139] Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, No. 139.
[140] Under four pillars.
[141] See p. 69.
[142] Of the earlier history of Tirol we shall have to speak when we
come to Schloss Tirol and Greifenstein.
[143] Consult Zoller, Geschichte der Stadt Innsbruck; and Staffler,
das Deutsche Tirol.
[144] See p. 146.
[145] For the convenience of the visitor to Innsbruck, but not to
interrupt the text, I subjoin here a list of the subjects. (1.) The
marriage of Maximilian (then aged eighteen) with Mary of Burgundy
at Ghent. (2.) His victory over the French at Guinegate, when he was
twenty. (3.) The taking of Arras thirteen years later; not only are the
fighting folk and the fortifications in this worthy of special praise,
but there is a bit of by-play, the careful finish of which must not be
overlooked; and the figure of one woman in particular, who is bringing
provisions to the camp, is a masterpiece in itself. (4.) Maximilian is
crowned King of the Romans. The scene is the interior of the Cathedral
of Aix-la-Chapelle: the Prince is seated on a sort of throne before
the altar; the Electors are busied with their hereditary part in the
ceremony; the dresses of the courtiers in the crowd, and the ladies
high above in their tribune, are a perfect record for the costumier,
so minute are they in faithfulness. (5.) The battle of Castel della
Pietra, or Stein am Calliano, the landscape background of which is
excellent; the Tirolese are seen driving the Venetians with great fury
before them over the Etsch (Adige). (6.) Maximilian's entry into Vienna
(1490), in course of the contest for the crown of Hungary after the
death of Matthias Corvinus; the figure of Maximilian on his prancing
horse is drawn with great spirit. (7.) The siege of Stuhlweissenburg,
taken by Maximilian the same year; the horses in this tableau deserve
particular notice. (8.) The eighth represents an episode which it must
have required some courage to record among the acts of so glorious
a reign; it shows Maximilian receiving back his daughter Margaret,
when, in 1493, Charles VIII. preferred Anne of Brittany to her. The
French envoys hand to the Emperor two keys, symbols of the suzerainty
of Burgundy and Artois, the price of the double affront of sending
back his daughter and depriving him of his bride, for Anne had been
betrothed to him. [Margaret, though endowed with the high qualities of
her race, was not destined to be fortunate in her married life: her
hand was next sought by Ferdinand V. of Spain for his son Don Juan,
who died very shortly after the marriage. She was again married, in
1508, to Philibert Duke of Savoy, who died without children three
years later. As Governor of the Netherlands, however, her prudent
administration made her very popular.] (9.) Maximilian's campaign
against the Turks in Croatia. (10.) The League of Maximilian with
Alexander VI., the Doge of Venice, and the Duke of Milan, against
Charles VIII. of France; the four potentates stand in a palatial hall
joining hands, and the French are seen in the background fleeing in
dismay. (11.) The investiture at Worms of Ludovico Sforza with the
Duchy of Milan. The portraits of Maximilian are well preserved on each
occasion that he is introduced, but in none better than in this one:
Maria Bianca is seen seated to the left of the throne, Sforza kneels
before them; on the waving standard, which is the token of investiture,
the ducal arms are plainly discernible. (12.) The marriage at Brussels,
in 1496, of Philip der Schöne, Maximilian's son, with Juana of Spain;
the Archbishop of Cambrai is officiating, Maximilian stands on the
right side of his son: Charles Quint was born of this marriage. (13.) A
victorious campaign in Bohemia in 1504. The 14th represents the
episodes of the siege of Kufstein, recorded in the second chapter of
these Traditions (1504). (15.) The submission of Charles d'Egmont to
Maximilian, 1505. The Kaiser sits his horse majestically; the Duke of
Gueldres stands with head uncovered; the battered battlements of the
city are seen behind them. (16.) The League of Cambrai, 1508. The
scene is a handsome tent in the camp near Cambray; Maximilian,
Julius II., Charles VIII., and Ferdinand V., are supposed to meet,
to unite in league against Venice. (17.) The Siege of Padua, 1509,
the first result of this League; the view of Padua in the distance
must have required the artist to have visited the place. (18.) The
expulsion of the French from Milan, and reinstatement of Ludovico
Sforza, 1512. (19.) The second battle of Guinegate: Maximilian fights
on horseback; Henry VIII. leads the allied infantry, 1515. (20.) The
conjunction of the Imperial and English forces before Terouenne:
Maximilian and Henry are both on foot, 1513. (21.) The battle of
Vicenza, 1513. (22.) The Siege of Marano, on the Venetian coast. The
23rd represents a noble hall at Vienna, such details as the pictures
on the walls not being omitted: Maximilian is treating with Uladisaus,
King of Hungary, for the double marriage of their offspring--Anna and
Ludwig, children of the latter, with Ferdinand and Maria, grandchildren
of the former--an alliance which had its consequence in the subsequent
incorporation of Hungary with the Empire. (24.) The defence of Verona
by the Imperial forces against the French and Venetians.
[146] Called by the French Philippe 'le Beau,' in distinction from
their own 'Philippe le Bel.'
[147] This monument earned Ferdinand the title of the Lorenzo de'
Medici of Tirol.
[148] St. Anthony being the patron invoked against accidents by fire;
also against erisypelas, which in some parts of England even is called
'St. Anthony's fire.'
[149] Weber, Das Land Tirol, vol. i. p. 218.
[150] Zoller Geschickte der Stadt Innsbruck, p. 272; and Weiesegger,
vol. vi. p. 61.
[151] I have met the same hyperbole in a piece of homely Spanish
poetry.
[152] 'Now he knows how the just monarch is beloved of Heaven; his
beaming countenance yet testifies his joy.'
[153] Nork, Mythologie der Volkssagen, p. 419.
[154] Exactly the story of the fisherman and the Genius in the copper
vessel of the Arabian Nights. It is found also in Grimm's story of
the Spirit in the bottle, in the Norse tale of the Master Smith;
in that of the Lad and the Devil (Dasent); and in the Gaelic tale of
the Soldier (Campbell).
[155] Von Alpenburg, Mythen u. Sagen Tirols.
[156] See pp. 194, 270, 324-5.
[157] They accepted their position with the usual Tirolese loyalty,
and never attempted to found any claims to power on the circumstance
of their birth.
[158] Holy Trinity Church.
[159] Patron saints against pestilence: viz. SS. Martha (because
according to her legend she built a hospital and ended her life
tending the sick), Sebastian (because a plague was stayed in Rome at
his intercession), and Rocchus (because of the well-known legend of
his self-devotion to the plague-stricken).
[160] Mentioned in the chapter on Vorarlberg, p. 23.
[161] Thirteen volumes were filled with the narrations of such
'answers' received between 1662 and 1665.
[162] Picture of Mary 'Help of Christians'--Auxilium Christianorum.
[163] Inglis says that Schor was the architect of this church, and
that he had assisted in building the Vatican.
[164] It is painted on panel, thirty inches by twenty-one; the figure
of our Lady is three quarter-length, but appears to be sitting, as the
foot of the Divine Infant seems to rest upon her knee. The tradition
concerning it is, that it represents an episode of the Flight into
Egypt, when, as the Holy Family rested under a palm-grove, they were
overtaken by a band of robbers, headed by S. Demas, the (subsequently)
penitent thief. The Holy Child is indeed represented clinging to His
Mother--not as in fear, or even as if need were to suggest courage
to her, but simply as if an attack sustained in common impelled a
closer union of affection.
[165] See pp. 123-4.
[166] She was on her way to Rome, where she spent the rest of her
life. Alexander VII. commissioned Bernini to rebuild the Porta
del Popolo, and adorned it with its inscription, Felici, faustoque
ingressui, in honour of her entry.
[167] See p. 280.
[168] Kreidenfeuer--alarm fires, from Krei, a cry.
[169] A leading spiritualist, who has also a prominent position in
the literary world, tells the story that one day he had missed his
footing in going downstairs, and was within an ace of making as fatal
a fall as Professor Phillips, when he distinctly felt himself seized,
supported, and saved by an invisible hand. The analogy between the
two convictions is curious.
[170] Consult Cesare Cantù Storia Universale, § xvii. cap. 21.
[171] Since writing the above, I have been assured by one who has
frequently conversed with her, that the concealment of her name
arose from her own modesty; it was Katharina Lanz. To avoid public
notice, she went to live at a distance, and up to the time of her
death in 1854, bore an exemplary character, living as housekeeper to
the priest serving the mountain church of S. Vigilius, near Rost,
the highest inhabited point of the Enneberg. When induced to speak
of her exploits, she always made a point of observing that, though
she brandished her hay-fork, she neither actually killed or wounded
anyone. She had heard that the French soldiers were nothing loth to
desecrate sacred places, and she stationed herself in the church porch
determined to prevent their entrance; the churchyard had become the
citadel of the villagers. From her post of observation she saw with
dismay that her people were giving way. It was then she rushed out
and rallied them; in her impetuosity she was very near running her
hay-fork through a French soldier, but she was saved from the deed by
her landlord, who, encouraged by her ardour, struck him down, pushing
her aside. The success of her sally and her subsequent disappearance
cast a halo of mystery round her story, and many were inclined to
believe the whole affair was a heavenly apparition.
[172] Celebration of the Resurrection.
[173] Spare your bread for the poor, and escape the fate of Frau
Hütt. See some legends forming a curious link between this, and that
of Ottilia Milser in Stöber Sagen des Elsasses, pp. 257-8.
[174] The dog's church or chapel.
[175] His well-known daring, emulating that of the chamois and the
eagle, was of no avail now; for straight under him sinks the Martin's
Wall, the steepest cliff of the whole country-side.
He gazes down through that grave of clouds. He gazes abroad over that
cloud-ocean. He glances around, and his gaze recoils.
With only the thunder-roll of the people's voices beneath, there stands
the Kaiser's Majesty. But not raised aloft to receive his people's
homage. A son of sorrow, on a throne of air, the great Maximilian
all at once finds himself isolated, horror-stricken, and small.
[176] 'With him,' says a Hungarian ballad, 'Righteousness went down
into the grave: and the Sun of Pest-Ofen sank towards its setting.'
[177] Primisser, who took great pains to collect all the various
traditions of this event, mentions a favourite huntsman of the Emperor,
named Oswald Zips, whom he ennobled as Hallaurer v. Hohenfelsen. This
may have been the actual deliverer, or may have been supposed to
be such, from the circumstance of the title being Hohenfelsen, or
Highcliff; and that a patent of nobility was bestowed on a huntsman
would imply that he had rendered some singular service: the family,
however, soon died out.
[178] See chapter on Schwatz.
[179] To the Editor of the 'Monthly Packet.'
Sir,--I think it possible that R. H. B. (to whom we owe the very
interesting Traditions of Tirol), and perhaps others of your readers,
may care to hear some of the particulars, as they are treasured by his
family, of the defence of Scharnitz by Baron Swinburne. R. H. B. speaks
of it in your number of last month. That defence was so gallant as to
call forth the respect and admiration even of his enemies, and Baron
Swinburne was given permission to name his own terms of surrender.
He requested for himself, and those under him, that they might be
allowed to retain their swords. This was granted, and the prisoners
were sent to Aix-la-Chapelle, where everyone was asking in astonishment
who were 'les prisonniers avec l'épée a côté.'
The Eagles of Austria, that had been so nobly defended by the
Englishman and his little band, never fell into the hands of the
French. One of the Tirolese escaped, with the colours wrapped round
his body under his clothes, and though he was hunted among the
mountains for months, he was never taken; and some years after he
came to his commander in Vienna and gave him the colours he had so
bravely defended. They are now in possession of Baron Edward Swinburne,
the son of the defender of Scharnitz, who himself won, before he was
eighteen, the Order of 'the Iron Crown,' by an act that well deserves
to be called 'a golden deed;' and ere he was twenty he had led his
first and last forlorn hope, when he received so severe a wound as
to cost him his leg, which has incapacitated him for further service.
His father received the highest military decoration of Austria,
that of 'Maria Teresa;' he fought at Austerlitz and Wagram; on the
latter occasion he was severely wounded. Later in life, he was for
many years Governor of Milan.
Hoping that a short record of true and faithful services performed
by Englishmen for their adopted country, may prove of some interest
to your readers, and with many thanks to R. H. B. for what has been
of so much interest to us,
I am, Sir, yours faithfully,
September, 1870. A. Swinburne.
[180] Häusergruppe.
[181] Such offerings are met with in other parts of Tirol; in one
place we shall find a candle offered of equal weight to an infant's
body. They present a striking analogy with the Sanskrit tulâdâna or
weight-gift; the practice of offering to a temple or Buddhist college
a gift of silver or even gold of the weight of the offerer's body
appears not to have been infrequent and tolerably ancient. Lassen
(Indische Alterthumskünde, vol. iii. p. 810) mentions an instance
of the revival of the custom by a king named Shrikandradeva, who
offered the weight of his own body in gold to the temple at Benares
(circa 1025); and (vol. iv. p. 373) another in which Aloungtsethu,
King of Birmah, in 1101, made a similar offering in silver to a temple
which he built at Buddhagayâ. He refers also to earlier instances
'in H. Burney's note 19 in As. Res. vol. xx. p. 177, and one by Fell
in As. Res. vol. xv. p. 474.'
[182] I have occasion to give one of the most remarkable legends of
the Oetzthal in the chapter on Wälsch-Tirol.
[183] See a somewhat similar version in Nork's Mythologie der
Volksagen, pp. 895-7.
[184] Circle.
[185] The sunnier and less thoughtful tone of mind in which the
Italian particularly differs from the German character, is often to
be traced in their legendary stories. Those of the Germans are nearly
always made to convey some moral lesson; this is as often wanting in
those of the Italians, who seem satisfied with making them means of
amusement, without caring that they should be a medium of instruction.
[186] The Passion Plays of the Brixenthal, however, are reckoned
the best. The performers gather and rehearse in the spring, and go
round from village to village through the summer months, only, as
amphitheatres are improvised in the open.
[187] It may be worth mentioning, as an instance of how the contagion
of popular customs is transmitted, that on enquiring into some very
curious grotesque ceremonies performed in Trent at the close of the
carneval, and called its 'burial,' I learnt that it did not appear
to be a Tirolean custom, but had been introduced by the soldiers of
the garrison who, for a long time past, had been taken from the Slave
provinces of the Austrian Empire, and thus a Slave popular custom has
been grafted on to Tirol. Wälsch-Tirol, however, has its own customs
for closing the carneval, too. In some places it is burnt in effigy;
in some, dismissed with the following dancing-song (Schnodahüpfl)
greeting,
Evviva carneval!
Chelige manca ancor el sal;
El carneval che vien
Lo salerem più ben!
[188] A centenary celebration of the Council was held at Trent in
1863, at which the late lamented Cardinal von Reisach presided as
legate a latere.
[189] This chapel has lately been restored by Loth of Munich.
[190] A variant of this tradition takes the more usual form of applying
it to the architect of the edifice, as with the Kremlin. As Stöber
gives it from Strasburg, it was there the maker of the great clock.
[191] Laste is dialectic for a smooth, steep, almost inaccessible
chalk cliff.
[192] Hence Kaiser Max was wont to call Tirol 'the heart' and 'the
shield' of his empire.
[193] St. Ingenuin was Bishop of Säben or Seben, A.D. 585. The See,
founded by St. Cassian, had been long vacant, and great errors and
abuses had taken root among the people, who in some places had relapsed
towards heathen customs. His success in reforming the manners of his
flock was most extraordinary. He built a cathedral at Seben, where he
is honoured on February 5, the anniversary of his death. St. Albuin,
one of his successors, was a scion of one of the noblest families of
Tirol; he removed the See to Brixen, A.D. 1004.
[194] This is a local application of the widespread myth of the tailor,
who kills 'seven at one blow,' identified by Vonbun (p. 71-2) with
the Sage of Siegfried. Prof. Zarncke has also written a great deal
to show Tirol's place in the Nibelungenlied.
[195] Anciently Anaunium, and still by local scholars called Annaunia,
a possession of the Nonia family, not unknown to Roman history.
[196] The white mulberry, whose leaves feed the silkworm, rearing which
forms one great industry of Wälsch-Tirol, is called the Seidenbaum,
the silk tree.
[197] Stammort, Cradle of his race.
[198] See Un processo di Stregheria in Val Camonica, by Gabriele Rosa,
pp. 85, 92; and Il vero nelle scienze occulte, by the same author,
p. 43; and Tartarotti Congresso delle Lammie. lib. ii. § iv. It is one
of the only four such spots anywhere existing where Italian is spoken.
[199] A mithraic sacrifice with several figures, sculptured in
bas-relief, in white Carrara marble, in very perfect preservation,
bearing the inscription:
ILDA MARIVS
L. P.
has just been found at this very spot.
[200] See pp. 164-6.
[201] Too many such remnants, which the plough and the builder's
pick are continually unearthing, have been thus dispersed. It has
been the favourite work of Monsignor Zanelli, of Trent, to stir up
the local authorities to take account of such things, and so form a
museum with them in Trent.
[202] Padre Tarquini--one of the rare instances of a Jesuit being
made a Cardinal--died, it may be remembered, in February last, only
about two months after his elevation. He had devoted much time to
the study of Etruscan antiquities; he published The Mysteries of
the Etruscan Language Unveiled in 1857, and later a Grammar of the
language of the Etruscans.
[203] '(1.) Or it might be 'ad introductionem viri.' (2.) 'Vulcano'
here (precisely as in another Etruscan inscription found a few
years before at Cembra, and translated by Professor Giovanelli)
for 'ignis.' (3.) An allusion to the custom of first piercing
(sforacchiare) the bodies of persons to be burnt in sacrifice, which
appears from the inscription found at S. Manno, near Perugia, and
again from the appearance of the figures of human victims represented
in the Tomba Vulcente. (4.) The deity of the place to which the key
belonged, probably, therefore, Saturn.'
[204] A Tag-mahd, or 'day's mowing,' is a regular land measure in
North Tirol.
[205] There is no record of her summit ever having been attained
before the successful ascent of Herr Grohmann, in 1864. Mr. Tucker,
an Englishman, accomplished it the next year.
[206] I have given some of the most curious of these in a collection
of Household Stories from the Land of Hofer.
[207] There is no tradition more universally spread over Tirol than
that which tells of judgments falling on non-observers of days of
rest. They are, however, by no means confined to Tirol. Ludovic
Lalanne, Curiosités des Traditions, vol. iv. p. 136, says that the
instances he had collected showed it was treated as a fault most
grievous to heaven. 'Matthieu Paris, à l'année 1200, raconte qu'une
pauvre blanchisseuse ayant osé travailler un jour de fête fut punie d'
une étrange façon; un cochon de lait tout noir s'attacha à sa mamelle
gauche.' He relates one or two other curious instances--one of a
young girl who, having insisted on working on a holiday, somehow got
the knot of her thread twisted into her tongue, and every attempt
to remove it gave intolerable pain. Ultimately she was healed by
praying at the Lady-altar at Noyon, and here the knot of thread was
long shown in the sacristy.
I well remember the English counterpart in my own nursery. There
were, indeed, two somewhat analogous stories; and I often wondered,
without exactly daring to ask, why there was so much difference
in the tone in which they were told, for the one seemed to me as
good as the other. The first, which used to be treated as an utter
imposture, was that a woman and her son surreptitiously obtained
a consecrated wafer for purposes of incantation (we have had a
Tirolean counterpart of this at Sistrans, supra pp. 221-2), and in
pursuit of their weird operation had pierced it, when there flowed
thereout such a prodigious stream of blood that the whole place was
inundated, and all the people drowned. The second, which was told
with something of seriousness in it, ('and they say, mind you, that
actually happened,') was of a young lady who, having persisted in
working on Sunday in spite of all her nurse's injunctions, pricked
her finger. No one could stop the bleeding that ensued, and she bled
to death for a judgment; and whether it was true or not, there was a
monument to her in Westminster Abbey. Dean Stanley, who seems to have
missed nothing that could possibly be said about the Abbey, finds
place, I see, to notice even this tradition (pp. 219-20 and note),
and identifies it with the monument of Elizabeth Russell (born 1575)
in St. Edmund's Chapel. Madame Parkes-Belloc tells me she has often
seen a wax figure of a lady (in the costume of two centuries later than
Elizabeth Russell) under a glass case in Gosfield Hall, Essex (formerly
a seat of the Buckingham family), of which a similar tradition is told.
[208] It is significant of a symbolical intention that the story should
thus allude to the Valle del Orco; the more so as I cannot hear of
any such actual locality in Val Sugana, though 'Orco' has lent his
name to more than one spot, as we shall see later. There is, however,
a Val d'Inferno between this valley and Predazzo.
[209] Settepergole--Seven Pergolas--the name of several farms in
Wälsch-Tirol. Pergola is the name for a vine trellised to form an
arbour, all over Italy.
[210] This effect has often been noticed here by travellers.
[211] Two bronze statuettes of Apollo were found here in June 1869.
[212] Very like and very unlike the legend of S. Giuliano I met in Rome
(Folklore of Rome), where he was supposed to be a native of Albano,
and to have passed his penitential time at Compostella. G. Schott,
Wallächische Märchen, pp. 281 and 375, gives a similar legend applied
to Elias in place of St. Julian.
[213] Folklore of Rome, p. 320.
[214] I need not repeat the characteristics of the Tirolean Norg,
which I have given in the translation of the 'Rose-garden' in Household
Stories from the Land of Hofer.
[215] Thorp's Northern Mythology, vol. ii. pp. 20-2.
[216] Though of course mere similarity of sound may lead one absurdly
astray; as if any one were to say that the old fables of rubbing a
ring to produce the 'Slave of the ring' was the origin of the modern
substitute of ringing to summon a servant!
[217] Again, Mr. Cox (Mythology of the Aryan Nations, vol. ii. p. 221
et seq.) says, 'the Maruts or storm winds who attend on Indra
... became the fearful Ogres in the traditions of Northern Europe
... they are the children of Rudra, worshipped as the destroyer and
reproducer and ... like Hermes, as the robber, the cheat, the deceiver,
the master thief.'
[218] Etruscan Researches, p. 376 and note.
[219] Stöber, Sagen des Elsasses, p. 30.
[220] Cities of Etruria, vol. ii. p. 65-8.
[221] Selvan, at all events, is a word which, Mr. Isaac Taylor
observes, is of frequent occurrence in Etruscan inscriptions
(Et. Res. pp. 394-5), and its signification has not yet been fixed. And
may not Gannes have some relation with Kan or Khan (p. 322)?
[222] It is very disappointing that he has translated the great bulk
of his vast collection of fiabe ('fiaba' in North Italian answers
to the 'favola' of Rome) so utterly into German that, though we find
all our old friends among them, all the distinctive expressions are
translated away, and they are rendered valueless for all but mere
childish amusement. Thus it is interesting to find in Wälsch-Tirol
a diabolical counterpart of the Roman story of 'Pret' Olivo,' but it
would have rendered it infinitely more interesting had the collector
told us what was the word which he translates by 'Teufel,' for it is
the rarest thing in the world for an Italian to bring the personified
'Diavolo' or 'Demonio' into any light story. In the same way it is
interesting to find all the other tales with which we are familiar
turn up here, but the real use of printing them at length would have
been to point out their characteristics. What was the Italian used
for the words rendered in the German by 'Witch?' Was it 'Gannes' or
'strega?' or for 'Giant' and 'Wild man:' was it 'l'om salvadegh' or
'salvan' or 'orco?' I cannot think it was 'gigante.' But all is left
to conjecture. Among the few bits of Italian he does give are two
or three 'tags' to stories, among them the one I met so continually
in Rome 'Larga la foglia'--(it was still 'foglia' and not 'voglia')
word for word.
[223] Dr. Steub, in his Herbsttagen in Tirol, shows that the Beatrick
may be identified with Dietrich von Bern.
[224] Though nothing would seem simpler than to suppose the word
derived from the Euganean inhabitants who left their name to Val
Sugana.
[225] It is curious to observe the story pass through all the stages
of the supernatural agency traditional in the locality; first the good
genius of the Etruscans merging next into the Germanic woodsprite,
then assuming the vulgar characteristics of later imaginings about
witchcraft, and then the Christian teaching 'making use of it,'
as Professor de Gubernatis says, 'for its own moral end.'
[226] A collection of the 'Costumi' of Tuscany I have, without a
title-page, but I think published about 1835, laments the growing
disuse in Lunigiana (i.e. the country round the Gulf of Spezia,
so called from Luna, an Etruscan city, but 'not one of the twelve,'
and including Carrara, Lucca, and Pisa) of the practice of recounting
popular traditions at the Focarelli there. These seem to be autumn
evening gatherings round a fire, but in the open air, often on a
threshing-floor; while the able-bodied population is engaged in the
preparation of flax, and some are spinning, the boys and girls dance,
wrestle, and play games, and the old crones gossip; but now, says the
writer, they begin to occupy themselves only with scandalous and idle
reports, instead of old-world lore.
[227] My readers will perhaps not recognize at first sight that this
is a corruption of Frau Bertha, the Perchtl whom we met in North
Tirol. In the Italian dialects of the Trentino she is also called la
brava Berta and la donna Berta.
[228] 'Your servant! Mistress Bertha of the long nose.' Such was
supposed to be the correct form of addressing the sprite.
[229] Many of these concern the earthly wanderings of Christ and his
apostles. I have given one of the most sprightly and characteristic of
Schneller's, too long to be inserted here, in The Month for September,
1870, entitled 'The Lettuce-leaf Barque.'
[230] Gathered for the above-named collection by Herr Zacchea of the
Fassathal, in the Val di Non, Lederthal, and Val Arsa.
[231] I have mentioned the only other wolf-stories that I have met with
in the chapter on Excursions round Meran; and at p. 31 of this volume.
[232] Cox's Aryan Mythology, vol. i. p. 405.
[233] I have thought this one of the best specimen tales, as the two
stories of the Three Wishes and the Three Faithful Beasts are leading
ones in every popular mythology. I have named a good many variants in
connexion with their counterparts in the Folklore of Rome, and a more
extensive survey of them, together with a most interesting analysis
of their probable origin, will be found in Cox's Mythology of Aryan
Nations, vol. i. pp. 144 and 375. I had thought that these, being
strung together in the text version, was owing to a freak of memory
of some narrator who, having forgotten the original conclusion of the
former story, takes the latter one into it; but, curiously enough, in
the note to the last-named page of Mr. Cox's work, he happens actually
to establish an intrinsic identity of origin in the two stories. The
Three Wishes story has also a strangely localized home in the Oetzthal,
which, though properly belonging to the division of North Tirol, I
prefer to cite here, for the sake of its analogies. Its particular home
is in the so-called Thal Vent, on the frozen borders of the Gletscher
described by Weber, as appalling to a degree in its loneliness, and in
the roaring of its torrents, and the stern rugged inaccessibility of
its peaks. Here, he says, three Selige Fräulein (Weber, like Schneller,
translates everything inexorably into German; this may have been
an Enguana) have their abode in a sumptuous subterranean palace,
which no mortal might reach. They are also called die drei Feyen,
he says, forming a further identification with the normal legend,
but he does not account for the penetration of the French word into
this unfrequented locality. They were kind and ancillary to the poor
mountain folk, but the dire enemies of the huntsman, for he hunted as
game the creatures who were their domestic animals (here we have the
nucleus of a heap of various tales and legends of the pet creatures
of fairies and hermits becoming the intermediaries of supernatural
communication). The Thal Vent legend proceeds that a young shepherd
once won the regard of the drei Feyen; they fulfilled all his wishes,
and gave him constant access to their palace under the sole condition
that he should never reveal its locality to any huntsman. After
some years the youth one day incautiously let out the secret to
his father, and from thenceforth the drei Feyen were inexorable in
excluding him from their society. He pleaded and pleaded all in vain,
and ultimately made himself a huntsman in desperation. But the first
time he took aim at one of their chamois, the most beautiful of the
three fairies appeared to him in so brilliant a light of glory, that
he lost all consciousness of his actual situation and fell headlong
down the precipice.
[234] They are called 'Lustige Geschichte,' 'Storielle da rider.' The
Germans have a saying that 'in jeder Sage haftet eine Sache;' the
'Sache' is perhaps more hidden in these than in others. I have pointed
out counterparts of the following at Rome and elsewhere in Folklore
of Rome.
[235] Capitello, in Wälsch-Tirol, is the same as Bildstöcklein in
the German provinces--a sacred image in a little shrine.
[236] Bears exist to the present day in Tirol. Seven were killed last
year. A prize of from five-and-twenty to fifty florins is given for
killing one by various communes.
[237] A distinct remnant of Etruscan custom. It is singular, too,
that Mr. I. Taylor finds 'faba' to have been taken by the Romans
from the Etruscans for a bean, but though the custom of connecting
beans with the celebration of the departed is common all over Italy,
I do not think the Etruscans provided their dead with beans except
along with all other kinds of food (supra p. 130-1 note).
[238] The little book of Costumi spoken of above, mentions the 'Zocco
del Natale' as in use also in Lunigiana; it is generally of olive-tree,
and household auguries are drawn from the crackling of leaves and
unripe berries. It cites a letter of a certain Giovanni da Molta,
dated 1388, showing that the custom has not undergone much change in
five hundred years.
[239] Two travellers, two prosperous ones, and a cardinal?--Answer. Sun
and moon; earth and heaven; and the ocean.
[240] There is a meadow overblown with carnations, yet if the Pope
came with all his court, not one sole carnation would he be able to
carry off?--Answer. The heaven beaming with stars.
[241] Plate upon plate; a man fully armed; a lady well dressed; a
stud well appointed?--Answer. Heaven and earth; the sun; the moon;
the stars.
[242] There is a palace with twelve rooms; each room has thirty beams,
and two are ever running after each other through them without ever
catching each other?--Answer. The palace is the year, the rooms the
months, the beams the days, and day and night are always following
each other without overlapping.
[243] The simplicity of the people of this valley is celebrated in many
'Men of Gotham' stories.
[244] Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, vol. 1, pp. xxxiv-v,
mentions the Etruscan remains that had been found at Mattrey (of
which he gives a cut) and other places in Tirol up to his time.
[245] It is noteworthy that so prominent an enquirer into Etruscan
antiquities should bear a patronymic so connected with Etruria as
Tarquini.
[246] In Abbé Dubois' introduction to his translation of the Pantcha
Tantra, is a story called 'La fille d'un roi changé en garçon,' in
which mention is made of a Brahman hermit who fixed his residence in
a hollow tree.